LA JUALA DE ORO and KATIYABAAZ bag top honors at 15th Mumbai Film Festival

With a promise to be back next year, bigger and better, the final day of the 15th Mumbai Film Festival presented by Reliance Entertainment and organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) unfolded.

After a week of celebrating cinema, the final few films screened today included Red Wedding directed by Guillaume Suon and Lida Chan, Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, Saving General Yang directed by Ronny Yu, Hiroshi Toda’s Seventh Cat, Five Years by Stefan Schaller, Costa Gavras’s Amen and the much acclaimed Z, A Few Days More by Om Prakash Srivastava among others.

The last of the 15th Mumbai Film Festival’s master classes was conducted by the legendary director Bruce Beresford, on Preparation by the Director. “I thought I would talk about the necessity of story boarding. These days, with tight budgets and short schedules, if you don’t plan them, you’ll make all sorts of horrible mistakes” he said.

The master class later turned into a panel discussion moderated by Variety Asia’s Bureau Chief, Patrick Rafter. Panelists included Milton Shefter, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member and Digital Motion Picture Archive project lead and Andy Maltz, director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Science and Technology Council.

The International Competition Jury of the 15th Mumbai Film Festival, headed by Bruce Beresford awarded the Golden Gateway of India for the BEST FILM in the International Competition section to LA JUALA DE ORO directed by Diego Quemada-Diez and produced by Inna Payan, Luis Salinas and Edher Campos.

The Jury Grand Prize was awarded with The Silver Gateway of India trophy and was given to the Indian film, FANDRY directed by Nagraj Manjule and produced by Vivek Kajaria and Nilesh Navlakha.

The Jury named Anthony Chen BEST DIRECTOR for the film Ilo Ilo and for her role in the same movie, Yann Yann Yeo won BEST ACTRESS.
The Silver Gateway of India Trophy for BEST ACTOR was awarded to Vincent Macaigne for his role in Tonnerre.

The final award in the International Competition category, the best work in SCRIPTING / EDITING / CAMERA / SOUND was given to Andrew Commis for his CINEMATOGRAPHY in the movie The Rocket.

The HT Cafe Mumbai Young Critics Jury Award for the BEST FILM presented by Ms Kavita Awasthi was given to the Voice of the Voiceless directed by Maximon Monihan. The HT Best Young Mumbai Critic Award presented by Daniel Kotenschulte was bestowed on a flabbergasted Yavar Ahmed of SCM Sophia College.

The Harmony Celebrate Age Jury, headed by Hansal Mehta bestowed the BEST FILM award on GLORIA directed by Sebastian Lelio. Along with the Silver Gateway of India trophy, director Sebastian Lelio was awarded a cash prize. Additionally, A cash prize was also awarded to director Matevz Luzar as his film SRECEN ZA UMRET won the Silver Gateway of India trophy for SECOND BEST FILM.

OH, HOW I LONG directed by Riyad Deis and AREFI, DER HIRTE (AREFI, THE SHEPHERD) directed by Daniel Asad Faezi elicited SPECIAL MENTIONS from the Jury.

The Indian feature fiction films screened in the India Gold 2013 category brought to the fore many talented directors. However, Jury member Jill Bilcock in consultation with the members of the Jury announced Deepti Kakkar and Farhad Mustafa’s Katiyabaaz (Powerless) as the BEST FILM in the category. Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost directed by Anup Singh won SECOND BEST FILM while Manju Borah’s Ko:yad (A Silent Way) received the SPECIAL JURY AWARD.

Directors below the age of 25 pit their skill in a short film competition DIMENSIONS MUMBAI. The brainchild of Mrs. Jaya Bachchan, the competition is a fantastic launch pad for young Mumbaikars. Headed by Shoojit Sircar, the Jury awarded director Keyur Kajavadra S’ IN THIS CITY the silver gateway of India trophy for BEST FILM. MUMBAICHA VADA PAV directed by Akshay Dhanavale won SECOND BEST FILM. Director Sameer Nerkar’s THE HANDICAPPED COLONY and Abhiraj Rajadyaksha’s SHARE were given SPECIAL MENTIONS by the Jury.

Mr. Srinivasan Narayanan, Festival Director, Mumbai Film Festival delivered the vote of thanks concluding this year’s Festival, which was followed by the closing film of the festival. The Fifth Estate directed by Bill Condon was screened as the finale film of the festival.

With over 200 films from 65 countries around the world screened and master classes that inspired, the 15th Mumbai Film Festival presented by Reliance Entertainment and organized by MAMI was truly a grand success.